The Breakthrough You Need | Steven Furtick

When You’re Hurting, You Need Jesus

When you’re in pain, your perspective becomes distorted. You can’t always trust your own interpretations. In moments of suffering, even the best things can seem like the worst. When you’re hurting, you may be drawn to unhealthy people who enable your struggles rather than to true friends who can help heal you.

When pain takes over, you may run to things that numb you instead of seeking what can truly set you free. Your judgment becomes unreliable. That’s exactly when you need Jesus the most. I need Jesus to walk with me. I need Him when I wake up and when I lie down at night, tossing and turning over life’s storms.

I need Jesus to show me the right doors because not every open door is from God. I need Him to guide me on which calls to answer and which messages to send. What I’m saying is—I need Him every hour.

Let me share a story before we dive into Scripture. The other day, Graham—he’s 17—was upset with us for going on tour. After the tour, we needed a short break to recover, but he wasn’t happy about it. You’d think a teenager would be excited to have the house to himself, but instead, he said, “I still need parents!” He wasn’t missing out on anything, yet he still longed for our presence.

Holly reminded him, “We flew you out for part of the tour. You had your friends over all weekend, and we were here the whole time. We’re only leaving for three days.” His response? “Well, I don’t need you on the weekend.” What a phrase. What a confession.

And it got me thinking—what if that’s how we treat God? What if we only want Him when it’s convenient? But what if we actually need Him for everything? What if He wants to be part of every moment of our lives?

What if God is waiting for you to invite Him into your struggles, your panic attacks, your fears? What if He walks with you even when you’re heading in the wrong direction? What if, in the moments when you’re spiraling, Jesus is right there, ready to catch you?

Too often, we see Jesus as just a Savior for when things go wrong. But He wants to be more than that. In the Bible, Jesus walked alongside two disciples on the road to Emmaus. For hours, He explained everything in Scripture about Himself, yet they still didn’t recognize Him.

And then, something interesting happened. The Bible says, “As they approached the village, Jesus continued on as if He were going farther.” Those words—as if—are key. Why would Jesus pretend to keep going? Because sometimes, God waits to be invited.

Yes, He is always present. But He permeates our lives when we give Him permission. He doesn’t force His way in—He waits for us to ask Him to stay.

The disciples urged Him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So Jesus stayed.

My favorite part of this passage isn’t just that Jesus followed them, even as they were going the wrong way. It’s not even that He gave them a masterclass in Scripture, revealing how He was the rock in the wilderness, the rod of Aaron, the fulfillment of Moses’ prophecies.

What I love most is what happened next—when Jesus sat at their table.